Safe and Sound
by Rannin
Summary: Flameheart goes through the SkyHeroes story line as a former Chaos Pirate. But will her feelings drag her back to a life of crime? Will be redone when I finish the whole trilogy.
1. Chapter 1

Being with the Chaos Pirates isn't easy. You have to put up a tough front at all times in battle, you're not allowed to show any emotion in battle aside from aggression, and you have to take orders from Svetlana. It can be tough sometimes, especially after being a loyal S.P.A. agent, but I've survived so far. I may only be 18, but age doesn't really seem to matter in a fight.

As for the other Chaos Pirates, they're probably the coolest people I know. Rose and I have been best friends since I joined and Raphael seemed more than happy to show me around, and to help get my plane fixed up. As for Dragomir and Svetlana, they seem to be slightly more advanced than us, but I've stayed on Dragomir's good side for the most part.

Actually, one might dare to say more than that, but the only proof of that might have been at initiation. When I first came to them (or rather they came to me) I was told that to get in, I had to see Dragomir's face for the first time (I'd already seen it but the memory was fuzzy), and live. I wasn't exactly sure what that meant, until Rose explained that he had a…few, scars on his face, and that Raphael had looked at him to wrong way at first, and got beat pretty badly. But he did put up a good enough fight, and he got in anyway.

When I walked down the dark hallway to his room, I could hear Raphael snickering behind me, and Rose elbowing him in the ribs. I slowly opened up the door to his room, and slipped inside. It was kinda dusty in there, with the window as the only source of light. Dragomir was lying on his bed with his eyes closed, his blood red hair slightly glinting in the sun. I could see right away the x-shaped scar going across his entire face. He then opened his eyes, stood up, and came directly towards me. When he stood an inch away, he looked down into my eyes and said in a thick Russian accent,

"When I look into your eyes, I see a deep green sea of fear, confusion, and affection. What do you see when you look into my eyes?"

I was completely shocked at this. From the way Rose had described him, I was expecting the first confrontation to be…well…not this. I realized, as I looked straight into his bright red eyes, that I hadn't prepared an answer for this. So I stuttered out,

"I- I see fire and blood, but at the same time I see…" I trailed off, as I couldn't think of anything else to say. For the few seconds that he looked at me seemed like an eternity. And then, he suddenly laughed, ruffled my hair a little, and made a motion for me to follow him.

We walked out of his room to a waiting Svetlana, Rose, and Raphael. Rose had fake shock, Raphael looked genuinely shocked, and it was impossible to read the expression on Svetlana's face. Obviously, she had expected someone like me to come crawling out within an inch of my life. After all, I didn't really look that tough, at least, compared to these guys. My hair was long, I didn't have any tattoos or piercings. The only thing that might have suggested some sort of daring stunt for the sake of my appearance was my dyed hair.

I didn't know it then, but at that point everything changed. I know it may sound cliché, but it's true. Everyone always expected me to stick to the side of good, no matter what, because my history suggested that I was that kind of person. I sometimes think that I should've try acting a bit more like Will, my more unpredictable cousin in SkyForce.

But fate happens the way it does, and at the moment, it had me sticking with the Chaos Pirates. We are now employed by Morcubus, and why he trusts me now, I don't know. Only a few months ago, Evelyn and I had thwarted his plans of world domination, and yet he now trusts me because I fly with the rouge pilots. Wow.

"Flameheart!" Morcubus walked toward me, with Dragomir walking next to him. For some reason, my heart seems to skip a beat whenever he's near. "I need you and Dragomir to scout out somewhere for my…weapon to be placed."

"Sure," I said, with a slight shrug, trying to look casual. Of course, Dragomir just saw right through it and smiled for a second.

As we were walking down to our planes he said, "Сегодня небо, Завтра мир."

"What does that mean?" I asked.

"It means: Today the sky, tomorrow the world." He said, quickly glancing down at my face, before turning to face forward again.

"Ah," I should've guessed. He's always saying stuff like that, usually with more enthusiasm, but that's only when he's expecting someone to fight with when we get there.

"Wait!" We both turned around to see Rose running toward us and waving.

"Wus up, Rose?" I asked as she caught up.

"Svetlana heard that you two were going out to scout some place, and probably wouldn't be fighting anyone." She gasped for breath and went on, "She said that she should come if there wasn't going to be an action from SkyForce."

"If there wasn't any action?" I asked in confusion. That made no sense. Why would she want more to go, if it wasn't likely that someone was going to come?

"She also said-" Rose was cut off abruptly by a Russian voice from down the hall.

"-That Dragomir should stay." Svetlana said this as she walked up to the three of us.

"Why?" Dragomir asked, a little challenge in his voice. Whenever asked who our leader was, we would normally answer "Svetlana," but it was still unclear if she or Dragomir should lead. "Flameheart and I never get to go out on missions together." He continued, "The only time we ever get to talk is when you are out somewhere, and you hardly ever go out without me."

They were face to face now. You could almost taste the tension in the air. You would think they were twins, regular siblings at least, but unfortunately, they weren't. Svetlana took a deep breath.

"Fine, you can come." As she walked briskly towards the planes she "accidently" jostled my shoulder roughly. Rose rolled her eyes and walked away. Dragomir and I exchanged a quick glance. For some strange reason, it felt as if this were the last time I would look at him the way I just did.

As we hurried down to the planes, a piece of folded up paper fell out of one of Dragomir's pockets. I was about to tell him that he had dropped it, when Svetlana made a jerking motion with her head to indicate that we should get in the planes at once. I quickly looked at the paper and saw that it was hand written in Russian. No time to ask about it now.

When we got to the Imperial Palace, Svetlana began to check her radar for enemy planes. I did the same, and discovered two of them near the edge. If we were careful, we wouldn't attract any attention. That is, we wouldn't have if Svetlana hadn't shot a missile up into the sky, clearly notifying the two other planes that we were there.

"What the Hell, Svetlana!?" Dragomir yelled at her over the sound of the missile.

"I'm in the mood for a good fight!" She yelled back, "And besides, Morcubus told me that this isn't REALLY where we're gonna put it!" She glanced over at me, and then back at him, "You and her take on the plane closest to you, I'll take this one!" She motioned towards the plane heading toward her.

"Alright!" Dragomir yelled back. He motioned at me to follow him, just like he did on the first day we met. When we reached the plane, I realized that it was Will.

"Flameheart, Dragomir! Long time no see!" She said to us half jokingly-half challengingly. She and Dragomir were constant rivals at times, and she fought me the same way she fought him. With just enough strength that said, "At this moment, I hate you, and I'll go as hard as I'd go with anyone else. But I won't hurt you enough to kill you." Which was a pretty good deal, when it came to war.

While Will was more focused on Dragomir, I glanced over at Svetlana to see who she was with. And out of all the pilots she could've gotten, it was Justice, leader of SkyForce. After a few quick shots at Will, I realized that Svetlana was almost losing, but not on accident. She's planning something, but I can't tell what.

At that moment, I saw Svetlana give Dragomir a quick motion to move to the side. I looked over at him to see that while he did it, he was as confused as I was. When I looked back at Svetlana I was horrified to discover that she, with Justice shooting furiously behind her, was head straight for my plane! Too late, I noticed that some of the controls on my plane had been tampered with earlier, and I couldn't move from where I was. As soon as Svetlana was about to collide with my plane, she veered up wards so that I was directly in Justice's line of fire.

The next thing I knew my plane was heading straight for the ground. The last thing I saw was a look of pure horror on Dragomir's face, and a slight hint of satisfaction in Svetlana's solemn stare. Then my plane hit the ground hard, and I did the same.


	2. Chapter 2

"What is that?" … "It looks like a person!" …. "We have to help them!" …. "We don't even know who they are!"

Faintly, I could here two voices, one male and one female. I couldn't tell if I was in Heaven, or still on Earth. All I could feel was being lifted up by something, and being carried away to what felt like a whole new world.

When I first opened my eyes I saw a silver metal ceiling. I tried to sit up, but the pain in my head and back kept me down. I must have groaned or made some sort of noise, because I soon heard a gasp and a woman with a long black ponytail looked over me. Her dark blue eyes look concerned as she looked down at me. I tried to talk, but couldn't. She said,

"Don't try to talk. You're badly hurt." She then put a cold cloth on my forehead and left.

It's been a few weeks since I was able to leave the SkyForce infirmary. I'm not exactly sure what I was doing there, or who I actually am. The only thing I'm sure of now is my name: Flameheart. I found out that the two pilots who had brought me here were Derek and Selena. Selena seems really nice, but Derek seems suspicious. Violet was the one that helped me get better, Ol' Gabby is our mechanic, the other pilots are Finn, Jenny, Martin, Will, and Summer, Will and I are related, and we're at war against a corrupt company called Morcucorp and a group of bounty hunters called The Chaos Pirates. Somehow, this all seems a bit familiar, but I can't figure out why.

"Flameheart!" Will called out to me, "Justice wants us to go do some training with Derek, you com'n?"

"'Course I am!" I said with a laugh. Kicking Derek's butt never got old, after all, he asked for it.

When we got out to our planes and into the skies, we could hear Derek over the static,

"Alright, ladies. I'ma bought to show you how it's done!" See? See why it's fun to fight him? Will and I split into two different directions. We figured since it was almost night we would team up once, just to take him down quickly.

Derek started shooting at Will first. While she distracted him, I flew around the stone pillars to shoot him from behind. As always, we took him down in about two minutes.

"Ugh! Not cool!" He yelled, once we had gotten back to the base, "Justice says that we can't team up in war games!"

"Sure you can," Justice's deep voice sounded from behind us, "As long as it's equal."

"Well, it WASN'T!" Derek stabbed the air with his finger.

"Well, I'm sure you'll be able to get in an equal fight once the Chaos Pirates strike again." And with that, he left the room.

"Damnit!" Derek followed.

"He reminds me of someone," I said after a few seconds of silence. "The spiky hair, the determination.."

"You LIKE Derek?" Will asked with astonishment.

"No, no," I shook my hands wildly., "He just reminds me of somebody that I used to know…"

"Isn't that a song?" She asked.

"I dunno, let's just grab something to eat, then maybe we can see if we can help out Gabby with some repairs." We both looked at each other and burst out laughing. Nobody helped him, and he didn't seem to want it.

The sun had gone down, but I wasn't tired. Whenever I can't sleep, I go up to the roof of the tallest watch tower on our base to think, specifically about one thing. When I had recovered enough to move around comfortably, I found a folded piece of paper with some foreign writing on it. I've been trying to figure out what it says, but I've had no luck. I don't even know what language it's in.

I haven't shown it to anyone, not even Will or Violet. Something about it feels special; It almost makes me want to cry, but I have no idea why. The only thing that looks slightly familiar is: пожар. I think I've seen it been written before, but where I have no idea.

I soon became tired and decided to go to my small cot. I was reluctant to do so, for sometimes, I had small flashes of memory come back to me. But all I could see was blood, and all I could feel was fear and satisfaction at the same time.

_A soft voice whispers to me, "It's late. We should sleep now." The voice is male, and is spoken in a foreign language that I don't know, but at the same time, I can understand it. I feel something soft beneath my head, and realize that a small sheet is all I have to stay warm. Am I in SkyForce? No, it feels too empty to be a room filled with 10+ people. The same voice is now speaking to himself, in a kind of song like way, as if he were singing._

_"What was that?" I ask._

_"Nothing!" He whispers urgently and jerks his head up, as if he didn't know what he was saying, or if he just didn't want anyone to hear him._

_Suddenly, this somewhat peaceful scene turned to blood and horror, as I seemed to falling, falling, falling down a never-ending hole._

"Uh!" I gasped for breath, as I sat straight upward. That's how that dream always ends, with that horrifying event. Is that what happened to me? What made me lose my memory? And if so, who was that boy? Why do I feel like I've seen him, even after this possible "accident"?

"Flameheart?" A drowsy voice was heard a few feet away. As the first rays of sunlight came through the few windows, I saw that Violet was sitting up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." I said, reassuringly, "I just had that dream again."

"What, the one where the guy's speaking in Spanish?" I looked over to see that Jenny was awake. She always tried to lighten the mood with her sarcastic remarks, but this time I couldn't laugh. This was the closest I'd ever come to clearly hear what he was saying. "Just forget about it," she continued, "I'm sure some flying will cheer you up." She looked at my face, "Or at least distract you for a while."

When we got to our central room, Justice was waiting for us in the middle of the room, as always.

"Alright, girls, we need help. Simple as that." He stated that so clearly, I was surprised. He usually went into a long explanation about what we had to do and how we had to do it.

"So soon?" I asked, half-jokingly.

"Yes," he answered, completely serious. "Thanks to Morcubus' 'security'-"

"Some 'security' he's got there." We hadn't noticed that Ol' Gabby had entered the room. "They're just thugs he hired. Hardly any real skill, but plenty 'a threat."

"The Chaos Pirates are more than just thugs!" Everyone turned to look at me with a slightly confused expression. "They have plenty of skill, and are DEFINATLY a threat to anyone who opposes them!"

"Since when do you defend the main thing that has Morcubus winning the war?" Derek asked, suspicious, as always. But this time, I couldn't blame him. I couldn't believe I'd just said that too. I mean, I'm loyal to SkyForce, right? Loyal to Justice, and Violet, and even Derek…Right?


	3. Chapter 3

Justice has told me that I must go visit his old friend, Admiral Barney, who is head of Air and Sea Patrol. He gave me a map of the world that showed where all known bases were. It was pretty sad, there were only three on there, SkyForce base, Sky Barracks, and Air and Sea Patrol. I had to go anyway, so I scanned the directions into my plane (AN: Don't ask how that works, it just does) and flew off.

When I got there, I was immediately escorted to the main room by a young girl with dark skin, light, short, brown hair, and a cute white and blue sailor suit. When we got up there, she automatically went to the left of the old man that was standing in the middle.

"Flameheart?" The old man asked.

"Greetings, Admiral Barney," I almost saluted, but stopped. Something told me it wasn't necessary.

"Just Barney," he corrected with a smile. But before he could continue-

"Flameheart!" The girl on the right squealed with delight. She had darker skin, blond hair, and green eyes. Barney shot her a look that I couldn't understand, but it seemed to silence her.

"I'm glad you're here," he continued, "This is my daughter, Mira." He motioned to the young girl who had brought me up here. "And this is our intelligence officer, Lyndsay." The girl on the right waved.

"M'kay," I said, only half listening. Something about the intelligence officer, Lyndsay, seemed kinda familiar. So did something about the admiral, but nothing about his daughter. I didn't have much time to think, because Barney soon continued.

"Justice told me you were a good pilot, but I think I need to see for myself." He said, carefully.

"What do you propose we do?" I asked. Everyone was so spectacle.

"Just a small patrol around Jack Frost Skyport. Shouldn't be much action, though." He explained.

"You probably won't see anything," his daughter put in, "Or anyone." She added, quickly.

"Alright, sounds fun." I said. If Mira said that no one was up there at the moment, I might just get away without any awkward situations.

"Morcubots!" Barney shouted as soon as we got into the sky. Sure enough, five Morcu-drones were flying around the chilly skyport.

Oh, this'll be fun. I thought to myself. I quickly locked onto the first one I saw, and started to fire my machine gun. I saw another fly past me, slower than the rest. For some reason, I was uneasy about this slowness. I quickly went after it just to make sure. When I shot at it, I made sure to hit it in a way that it was fall to the ground before it exploded.

When it hit the ground and didn't explode, I flew down to examine it. Something about just seemed…different. I knew I'd seen Morcubots before from previous missions, but there was something about the five here that made me uneasy. As soon as I had approached it, Barney flew down to see what I was doing.

"What's so fascinating about that drone, Flameheart?" He asked. I was about to respond, when I saw something out of the corner of my eye.

"Barney!" I half-shouted in frustration, "You're letting the last one get away!?" He looked a bit sheepish.

"Sorry," he rubbed the back of his neck, "Guess this ol' minds not as sharp as it used to be." I looked at him for a minute, then continued to examine the fallen Morcubot. I then realized what was different about it. Unlike all the other Morcubots of seen, which are just plain robots with no distinctive features at all, this one had a clear black surface where its face would be if it was a person. With a yank, I pulled it off to see what was behind it.

"Oh my God," I whispered, in a tone that almost sounded like disgust.

"What?" Barney came up behind me.

"It's a…video camera." I said in half astonishment- half confusion.

"…So?" He asked, "Who cares? Don't we want Morcubus to see us defeating him?"

"Yeah…I guess." I stood up slowly. If all the Morcubots had cameras in them, the last one must have gotten to record me. Why did this bother me so much? "I guess its fine. What can they gain from it anyway?" I asked, mostly to myself.

We then got back to our planes, and flew back to Air and Sea Patrol, where he would stay, and I would go back to SkyForce.

"A video camera?" Summer and I were sitting with Violet in our room, attempting some down time until Justice called us in for a mission.

"Yeah," I answered.

"What good will  
that do?" Summer asked with curiosity.

"Maybe to spy on us," suggested Violet.

"That doesn't make any sense," I narrowed my eyebrows in frustration, "The only time they could spy on us is during battle, and with our skills, there's not much time to do that. What if they're looking for someone?"

"Like who?" Violet asked, "Morcubus knows pretty much everyone that's in SkyForce, or of anyone, I should say. Why would he need to look for someone specific if he could just ambush and capture him or her?"

"I dunno," I said, a bit embarrassed by my jumping to conclusions, "Maybe I'm over thinking it."

"Speaking of over-thinking," Summer spoke up, "Have you gotten anywhere with those 'mysterious dreams from your past' yet?" I looked at her with an almost bored-like expression.

"No, Summer, I haven't. Not even close." I sat down, "And who knows if they're hints to what happened before this? They could just be random dreams.

"Traumatizing, mysterious, random dreams." Violet put in with a half smile. I stood up and left the room. I need to go talk to Jenny, who was analyzing one of the camera-d Morcubots. After I'd explained what'd happened to Justice, he sent Martin and Will over to Jack Frost Skyport to retrieve it.

When I entered her room, all I saw were scraps of metal everywhere. Of course, in order to clearly look at it, Jenny had to dismantle it. I sighed. I looked down at some of the pieces near my feet. One appeared to have a sort of black and red symbol creeping out from the other side. I picked it up and turned it around. The letters "CP" were stamped on in black with a red circle in the background, with black along the edges.

"Chaos Pirates." I whispered to myself. They always put their logo on everything they made, and why that was, I have no idea. I was almost surprised that it didn't have the Morcucorp logo on there instead, but then remembered that it was the Chaos Pirates that had made the Morcubots. How did I know that? Justice must have told me at some point. Yes, he must have.

"Looking for something?" A voice behind me jump, and I turned around to see Jenny in the door way.

"Sorry, Jenny." I replied, "Just wondering if you'd found anything yet." She walked over to me.

"No, not yet," She took the piece of metal I was holding, "Only that the Chaos Pirates are really good mechanics with really bad choices of color and font." She snickered, "Anything else you need to know? Because if there is, I can't help you."

"No, Jenny, but thanks."

As I left the room I couldn't help thinking that the fact that the last drone had escaped was going to effect the war somehow. How or why I don't know, and unfortunately, there is not one person with whom I can discuss this theory with. If I did, they'd think I was going insane.


End file.
